Original Article Sunday, March 13, 2005 Mafia madness: NYPD detectives as hitmen, FBI agent as mobster? By PAT MILTON AND LARRY McSHANE Associated Press Writers March 13, 2005, 11:14 AM EST NEW YORK -- It's getting harder to tell the cops from the crooks around here. Imagine the surprise of 32 mobsters arrested this week, including the head of the Gambino family, only to discover their brother-in-firearms of the last two years was an undercover FBI agent doing an Al Pacino impersonation. And imagine the disgust of New York police officials when a pair of retired detectives were arrested in an Italian restaurant on the Las Vegas strip, charged as mob hitmen responsible for eight murders and a failed plot to kill turncoat Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. "They're all becoming made men _ one for good reasons, some for bad reasons," said mob expert Howard Abadinsky. Henry Hill, the onetime informant now living in America's heartland, said it sounded a bit like old times: "They're running amok back there." The stunning mob stories broke on consecutive days in New York, still the center of the Mafia universe and home to five of its crime families. As details emerged, both tales assumed a Hollywood patina: the FBI agent was right out of "Donnie Brasco," while one of the two detectives had a bit part in "Goodfellas." The Brasco sequel came 24 years after FBI agent Joe Pistone, in the first case of its kind, inflitrated the Bonanno family. Like Pistone, the unidentified agent accepted by the once-mighty Gambino family was uniquely qualified. He walked the walk, a physically imposing guy built like a tank. He talked the talk, too, the mobspeak that helps right guys get made and wrong guys get whacked. More importantly to his associates in the Gambino family, the 50-something mob wannabe could deliver stolen watches, jewelry, plasma televisions. It wasn't until last Wednesday, when federal authorities arrested 32 of them, that the mobsters discovered his true affiliation. "They were all shocked," said Matt Heron, the New York-based FBI official who ran the two-year undercover operation. "I saw some crestfallen faces." None were more shaken than Gambino capo Gregory DePalma, a 72-year-old Mafiosi who had once posed backstage with Frank Sinatra and since-slain family boss "Big Paul" Castellano. DePalma, dazzled by the agent's performance, had proposed his induction into the Gambinos _ an offense that produced a mob-imposed death sentence for one of Brasco's sponsors. Although the agent remains unidentified, FBI officials described him as a law enforcement veteran and a family man, with undercover experience and unfailing instincts. When the plan was proposed, he volunteered. His meetings were always in public places: diners, Italian restaurants, rest stops. Two of the most memorable spots were at a New Rochelle nursing home, where they conversed at the bedside of one gangster's comatose son, and at a suburban Bloomingdale's. Inside the store, the agent stepped in when one mobster grabbed a brass candlestick holder and began bashing the other in the middle of the store. His reaction limited the damage to a bloody head wound. The FBI agent spent two years with the Gambinos. According to authorities, ex-NYPD detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa spent considerably more time in their murderous roles after joining the Luchese family payroll in 1986. Eppolito, 56, grew up in a mob family; his grandfather and father were both in the Mafia. He was the wisecracking, flashy and flabby partner of Caracappa, a skinny, mustachioed detective known as "The Stick." Eppolito never denied his mob roots. He even wrote an autobiography, "Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob." He retired in 1990, Caracappa followed two years later, and the pair became neighbors in Las Vegas. A law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Eppolito had the mob connections and Caracappa the access to information through his job in the Organized Crime Homicide Squad. An indictment charged the pair worked together to identify three mob informants, who were then killed for their cooperation. The detectives were also accused of accepting a $65,000 contract from Luchese underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso to kill Gambino capo Eddie Lino, who was suspected of plotting to kill Casso. Gravano was targeted for the same alleged office, the indictment charged. By the end of the week, Eppolito and Caracappa were kicking up their heels in a Nevada jail. In contrast, the undercover FBI agent was kicking back at home with his family. "He was delighted it was over," said Heron. "He is very pleased." ___ Associated Press Writer Michael Weissenstein contributed to this story.